Lifestyle Nutrition & Management
 
3. Do something every day. I think this statement I heard somewhere along the road said it best: if something is important, do it every day; if it’s not important, don’t do it at all.

Exactly!

Change happens only when you slowly tear down old habits and build new ones in their place. That has to be daily, in my experience. In fact, that’s one of the reasons exercise alone doesn’t work — doing something 3 times a week isn’t enough to build a new habit. That’s also why personal training isn’t very effective (unless it combines nutrition and daily habit building, like I encourage and teach in my nutrition sessions.)

Instead, in order to live a healthier lifestyle, you have something to do every day. A workout to do, a lesson to read, a habit to practice, fellow clients and colleagues to chat with. If you want to get in the best shape of your life, ask yourself, “What’s one thing I could start doing every day?”
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2. Take photos. Admit it: you care — at least a little, and maybe a lot — about how you look. And that’s okay! In fact, it’s healthy and normal. Who doesn’t want to look great? Well, for the same way you’d measure weight loss if you want to lose weight, you better take photos if you want to look better.

Understand that it’s normal to not be totally at ease about taking photos of yourself at first. Just know that it’s a) a very important step toward self-awareness, without which you simply cannot change, b) the best way to document your hard work, and c) possibly the most motivating thing you will ever do for yourself.

(And remember, everyone starts in the same place: out of shape. You have to start somewhere, right?!)
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Over the next week or so, I'd like to share with you some simple lessons that will help you to achieve your health and wellness goals.

Some of them run against conventional wisdom (but conventional wisdom isn’t doing much for the physiques of North Americans these days, is it?), and if you use them, you will be leaner, stronger and healthier than you ever thought you could be.

Many of theese lessons aren’t about “nutrition” per se, and there’s a reason for that. You can learn the in’s and out’s of what to eat in other blog posts and articles. Healthy Eating is about actually changing, and so is this post.

Keep an open mind, read each lesson each day, and ask yourself honestly: “how many of these am I actually doing?” If you really want to lose fat, then at the end, I suggest you pick one lesson and start using it right away.

Let’s get started.

1. Measure what you want to improve. When working with my clients, I keep data on everything clients want to improve. Wanna lose weight? Step on the scale. Wanna be more precise and lose fat? Get out the body fat analyzer and measure body fat. Wanna fit into your skinny clothes? Try them on once in a while. Wanna feel better? Then every few weeks, actually ask yourself how you’re feeling, write it down, and review it every few months.

Basic stuff right? I THINK NOT! I work with a variety of individuals each day, both one-on-one and in small groups, with clients from all walks of life. And believe me: practically no one does this. Holding yourself accountable isn't easy, but it truly works! There’s an old saying you’d be wise to follow: “What gets measured gets done.”

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Women who had high levels of blood serum calcium were found to have a decreased risk from all types of cancer. Men who displayed high blood levels of calcium exhibited decreased risk from cancers of the GI tract especially colorectal cancer.

Sources: Dairy Food, Calcium, and Risk of Cancer in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study
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Resveratrol, the polyphenol found in wine, red grapes and in high amounts in other plants, when fed as a supplemented to lemurs, was shown to cause a reduction in seasonal body mass gain by helping to decrease the animals food intake and increase the primate's body temperature, thereby indicating it had an effect on the animal's metabolism.

Source: Resveratrol suppresses body mass gain in a seasonal non-human primate model of obesity
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Patients with major depression who do not also suffer from anxiety disorders were found to respond very positively when omega-3 fatty acid fish oil supplements were used to help diminish the severity of the symptoms of this potentially devastating condition.

Source: The Efficacy of Omega-3 Supplementation for Major Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial
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Patients who display multiple risk factors for cardiovascular disease demonstrated significant improvements in several risk parameters including sugar metabolism, lipid profiles and blood pressure when supplemented with antioxidants including CoQ10 and vitamin E, according to a recent study.

Source: Effect of long-term treatment with antioxidants (vitamin C, vitamin E, coenzyme Q10 and selenium) on arterial compliance, humoral factors and inflammatory markers in patients with multiple cardiovascular risk factors.
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Use of fish oil was shown to significantly decrease blood pressure in overweight adolescent boys. High blood pressure, imbalances in blood lipids and other markers of metabolic and cardiovascular disease can follow adolescents into adult hood potentially leading to more serious disease processes.

Source: Effects of Fish Oil Supplementation on Markers of the Metabolic Syndrome

Here is an interesting, related article entitled Fish Oil Triglycerides vs. Ethyl Esters.
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Supplemental use of both forms of vitamin K, vitamin K1 and vitamin K2, were shown to decrease the incidence of developing type II diabetes.

Vitamin K1 is found in green leafy vegetables such as lettuce, broccoli and spinach, and makes up about 90 per cent of the vitamin K in a typical Western diet, while K2, which makes up about 10 per cent of Western vitamin K consumption and can be synthesized in the gut by microflora.


Source: Dietary phylloquinone and menaquinones intake and risk of type 2 diabetes

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In type II diabetes, vitamin D deficiency was shown to increase insulin resistance and decrease beta-islet cell function.

Beta-islet cells are special cells found in the pancreas that manufacture and release insulin, a hormone that controls the level of glucose in the blood.


Source: Association of Vitamin D With Insulin Resistance and β-Cell Dysfunction in Subjects at Risk for Type 2 Diabetes

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Lifestyle Nutrition & Management